Dietary fat content and supplementation with sodium butyrate: effects on growth performance, carcass traits, meat quality, and myopathies in broiler chickens.

This study aimed to evaluate the effects of the dietary inclusion of microencapsulated sodium butyrate (Na-butyrate; 0, 150, and 300 mg Na-butyrate/kg diet) and dietary fat reduction (7.7% vs. 6.7% in the grower diet; 8.9% vs. 7.7% in the finisher diet) in 792 (half male and half female) broiler chickens on growth performance, carcass traits, and meat quality and the occurrence of wooden breast (WB), white striping (WS), and spaghetti meat (SM). Dietary supplementation with Na-butyrate did not affect the growth performance, carcass traits, meat quality traits, or myopathy rates. Dietary fat reduction did not influence feed intake (FI) but decreased average daily gain (ADG); increased feed conversion ratio (FCR) (P < 0.001); and decreased the occurrence of WS (-38%; P < 0.01), WB (-48%; P < 0.05), and SM (-90%; P < 0.01). Dietary fat reduction also increased cold carcass weight (P < 0.01), carcass yield (P < 0.05), and pectoralis major yield (P < 0.05), whereas meat quality was not affected. Compared to females, males had high body weight, ADG, and FI and low FCR (P < 0.001) at the end of the trial. Moreover, cold carcass weight and hind leg yield were higher in males than in females (P < 0.001), whereas females had higher carcass, breast, and p. major yields (P < 0.001). Males showed a higher rate of WB (P < 0.001) and a lower rate of SM (P < 0.01) than females, whereas WS occurrence did not differ between sexes. In conclusion, Na-butyrate supplementation did not affect growth performance, carcass traits, or meat quality. Conversely, the reduction in dietary fat greatly decreased myopathy occurrence, whereas moderately impaired growth performance.

Factors affecting space use by laying hens in a cage-free aviary system: effect of nest lighting at pullet housing and of curtain nest color during laying.

At 17 wk of age, 1,800 Lohman brown hens were housed in 8 pens of an experimental aviary system, specifically set up for the purposes of the present study, and kept until 26 wk without or with nest lighting (lights inside the nest 1.5 h before the lighting of the installation) for training in the nest use. Then, at 27 wk, 4 combinations of nest curtains were adopted to evaluate the effects on hens' distribution, that is, nests with red (RR) or yellow (YY) curtains at all tiers; nests with red and yellow curtains at the first and second tier, respectively (RY); or nests with yellow and red curtains at the first and second tier, respectively (YR). The use of enlightened compared to dark nests at housing increased the oviposition rate (P < 0.001) and decreased the rate of broken (P < 0.001) and dirty eggs (P < 0.05) from 27 to 45 wk, while increasing the rate of eggs laid inside the nests (P < 0.001). The presence of yellow nest curtains increased the rate of hens on the floor in pens YY and YR compared to pens RR and RY (35.3 and 35.5% vs. 34.1 and 33.3%, respectively; P = 0.05) and the rate of floor eggs in pens YR (2.23% vs. 1.63 and 1.65% in pens RR and RY; P < 0.05). In pens RY, a higher rate of eggs was always found on the second tier compared to the first one with the most inhomogeneous distribution compared to pens RR, YY, and YR (+10.8 vs. +3.4, +1.9, and +4.6 percentage points of eggs laid on the second tier compared to the first one, respectively). In conclusion, nest lighting at housing trained hens to the use of nests while improving egg production in terms of quantity and quality. The use of yellow curtains on nests moved hens between the different levels of the aviary but this was not associated with an increased nest use for laying.

Prevalence of owner-reported behaviours in dogs separated from the litter at two different ages.

The present study examined the prevalence of behaviours in dogs separated from the litter for adoption at different ages. Seventy adult dogs separated from their dam and littermates and adopted between the ages of 30 and 40 days were compared with 70 adult dogs that had been taken from the litter for adoption at two months. Owners were asked to complete a questionnaire eliciting information on whether their dog exhibited potentially problematic behaviours when in its usual environment. Binary logistic regression analysis was performed to investigate whether the age at which the dog was separated from the litter might predispose it to developing undesirable behaviours. The odds of displaying destructiveness, excessive barking, fearfulness on walks, reactivity to noises, toy possessiveness, food possessiveness and attention-seeking were significantly greater for the dogs that had been removed from the litter earlier during the socialisation period. In addition, dogs purchased from a pet shop at 30 to 40 days of age were reported to exhibit some of the listed behaviours with a significantly higher frequency than dogs purchased from a pet shop at two months. No significant differences were observed with dogs obtained from other types of sources. The dogs in the youngest age group (18 to 36 months) had a higher probability of displaying destructiveness and tail chasing. These findings indicate that, compared with dogs that remained with their social group for 60 days, dogs that had been separated from the litter earlier were more likely to exhibit potentially problematic behaviours, especially if they came from a pet shop.

[The role of pelvic outlet dystocia in the pathogenesis of pelvic floor damage cause by obstetric intervention]. / Ruolo delle distocie dell'egresso pelvico nella patogenesi del danno perineale ostetrico.

BACKGROUND: Vaginal delivery may cause injury to the perineum even when it progresses normally. In the light of this, some authors have suggested that other factors besides obstetric trauma may be implicated in the pathogenesis of genito-urinary prolapse, such as maternal constitution, race, connective tissue characteristics, etc. The aim of this study was to investigate the role of mechanical factors in causing perineal injury. METHODS: We examined the clinical data of 250 women who underwent, 20 days after delivery, a clinical examination consisting of a semeiological study of micturition and a functional evaluation of the pelvic floor. RESULTS: Outlet dystocia seems to be associated with the higher prevalence of anteriormedian prolapse and seem to play an important role in the pathogenesis of post-partum pelvic floor deficiency. CONCLUSIONS: If valid prognostic indexes for the selection of patients at risk are found, it will be possible to carry out an effective prevention of pelvic floor damage and also to avoid an indiscriminante and unjustified increase of laparotomic deliveries.

The role of the endocrine factors and obesity in hormone-dependent gynecological neoplasias.

Between September 1990 and February 1992, we studied 70 women of post-menopausal age, of whom 33 were affected by hormone-dependent gynecologic tumors and 37 by other pathologies, measuring estrogens, androgens, SHBG and also measuring excess fat and its distribution. The aim of our research was to ascertain what relation there was between adipose tissue, taking account central or peripheric localization, the levels of sex steroids and the onset of endometrial and breast cancer. In the group of tumor patients, we found a quantity of fat mass greater than in the control group (p < 0.05); there was, beside, in the first group, an inverse proportional correlation between the SHBG levels and BMI, and between SHBG and the fat mass (P < 0.05). We also observed an inverse relation between the levels of testosterone and SHBG (P < 0.05). These findings confirm the role that the adipose tissue and androgens would have on the globulin production, which in turn would reflect on the percentage of potentially active steroids in endometrial and mammary tissues. We also wished to ascertain if the distribution of fatty tissue (prevalently abdominal or prevalently gluteo-femoral) could have different endocrine-metabolic consequences. We found a directly proportional relation between an index of central obesity, the T/L Ratio, and the levels of DHA-S (P < 0.05), but the significance of this relation is not clear, inasmuch as DHA-S is one of the least active of the androgens.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)